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Abstract:

A liquid manure spreader includes a hollow housing chamber having a
generally cylindrical sidewall, a chamber bottom provided with a pattern
of obround outlet openings, an array of outlet tubes connected to receive
material through the obround openings and an inlet cover on the housing.
The slurry distributor also includes a rotating hollow expeller member to
secure and distribute slurry to the obround outlets having a central
rotational axis and a plurality of outlet chambers which have cutter
blades attached. A hydraulic motor is connected to rotate the expeller in
the housing chamber. A cutter plate is mounted to the chamber bottom and
has a pattern of obround openings matching that in the chamber bottom
that cooperates with the cutter blade to prevent clogging of the outlet
openings.

Claims:

1. A liquid manure slurry distributor (a) a hollow housing chamber having
a generally cylindrical sidewall, a chamber bottom provided with a
pattern of obround openings, an array of outlet tubes connected to
receive material through said obround or elongated openings and an inlet
cover on said housing; (b) a hollow expeller member having a central
rotational axis mounted for rotation in said chamber and having cutter
blades attached thereto; and (c) a motor connected to rotate said
expeller in said housing chamber.

2. A distributor as in claim 1 further comprising a cutter plate mounted
above said chamber bottom and having a pattern of obround or elongated
openings matching that in said chamber bottom.

3. A distributor as in claim 1 wherein said motor is a hydraulic motor.

4. A distributor as in claim 2 wherein said motor is a hydraulic motor.

5. A distributor as in claim 1 further comprising spaced reusable
clamping devices for resealably closing said inlet cover.

6. A distributor as in claim 1 wherein said lid is hinged to said housing
chamber.

7. A distributor as in claim 6 further comprising spaced reusable
clamping devices for resealably closing said inlet cover.

8. A distributor as in claim 1 wherein said obround openings are uniform
in size and distributed about the chamber bottom in a regular pattern.

9. A distributor as in claim 1 wherein said expeller has a central inlet
and regular pattern of four outlet openings.

10. A distributor as in claim 1 wherein said inlet cover has a central
opening to receive an inlet pipe.

11. A distributor as in claim 1 wherein said outlet tubes are adapted to
transfer liquid manure slurry to hoses connected thereto.

12. A distributor as in claim 2 wherein said cutter blades and said
cutter plates are attached using removable fasteners.

13. A method of providing equal distribution of a liquid manure slurry
through an array of supply hoses comprising: (a) providing a hollow
housing chamber having a generally cylindrical sidewall, a chamber bottom
provided with a pattern of obround openings, an array of outlet tubes
connected to receive material through said obround openings and an inlet
cover on said housing; and a motor-operated rotating hollow expeller
member having a central rotational axis mounted for rotation in said
chamber and having material distributing lobes and cutter blades attached
thereto; (b) rotating said hollow expeller while supplying liquid manure
slurry through said inlet cover to said expeller to distribute said
slurry evenly among said obround openings to said outlet tubes.

14. A method as in claim 13 further comprising using the cutter blades in
conjunction with a cutter plate mounted above and matching said bottom
obround openings to prevent clogging of said obround openings.

Description:

CROSS-REFERENCED TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] Cross references is made to application Ser. No. ______, filed of
even date and entitled "AGRICULTURE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM", which is
assigned to the same Assignee as the present application. That
application is deemed incorporated herein in its entirety for any
purpose.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[0002] Not applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] I. Field of the Invention

[0004] The present invention relates generally to agricultural implements
and, more particularly, to a slurry distributor to divide and route
liquid materials received from a common source evenly to a plurality of
locations. Specifically, the present invention relates to a slurry
distributor system that enables the even and equal metering of liquid
manure to a plurality of outlets at different distances resulting in
uniform placement or even distribution of material into the soil across a
wide swath.

[0005] II. Related Art

[0006] Liquid manure spreaders are used in the transportation and
application of liquid manure which is obtained generally from manure
lagoons associated with the keeping of farm livestock and spread on
agricultural fields. The liquid manure is generally in the form of a
slurry of liquid and solid animal wastes produced from farming operations
which can be pumped out of a lagoon and distributed.

[0007] Liquid manure spreaders generally include one or more tanks mounted
on a chassis towed by a tractor. The tanks may be of rather large
capacity and are normally connected to a plurality of spaced outlets
which distribute the liquid manure into the ground, typically using soil
injection tools. The liquid manure is usually pumped from the tanks into
a central distribution manifold, which has a number of outlet openings.
These openings, in turn, are connected by hoses to soil injection tools,
or the like, located at spaced intervals which are at varying distances
from the central distribution manifold. Generally, there is no control
system to insure even distribution of the liquid manure to the several
soil locations so that the manure flows unevenly from the hoses as the
longer hoses to the more distant outlets exhibit more resistance to flow.

[0008] Attempts have been made to more evenly distribute sludge or manure
to a plurality of distributed hoses. U.S. Pat. No. 7,509,977 B2 to
Huffman uses rotating occluding baffles of different lengths to control
back pressure at a plurality of outlets over a range of supply pressures.
That system is meant to deal with supply pressures that vary widely and
requires the changing of baffle lengths to accommodate different supply
pressures.

[0009] Thus, there remains a need for a slurry distributor that enables
equal proportioning through a plurality of outlets which is relatively
simple in construction and requires little maintenance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] By means of the present invention, a slurry distributor device and
method are provided for delivering precise and equal amounts of liquid
slurry materials from a common source to a plurality of locations. The
system is particularly useful to distribute liquid manure slurry to a
plurality of spaced soil incorporation tools located at different
distances from the distributor.

[0011] One embodiment includes a hollow housing chamber having a generally
cylindrical sidewall, a chamber bottom provided with a radial pattern of
obround (elongate) outlet openings, an array of outlet tubes connected to
receive material through the obround openings and an inlet cover on the
housing. The slurry distributor also includes a hollow expeller member
for receiving and distributing slurry material. The expeller has a
central rotational axis mounted for rotation in the chamber and a
plurality of outlet chambers which have cutter blades attached and a
hydraulic motor is connected to rotate the expeller in the housing
chamber. A cutter plate is mounted above the chamber bottom and has a
pattern of obround openings matching that in the chamber bottom.

[0012] In operation, slurry from a source, normally pumped from liquid
manure tanks, enters the housing chamber under pressure through a pipe
connected through the inlet cover and is supplied to the expeller where
it is distributed through the obround openings with equal force as the
expeller rotates. The cutter blades and cutter plate cooperate to chop up
solids and prevent clogging of any of the outlet openings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote like
parts:

[0014] FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view of dual slurry tank manure spreading
system incorporating a liquid manure slurry distributing system in
accordance with the present invention;

[0015] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a liquid slurry distribution system
in accordance with the invention;

[0016] FIG. 3A is a side elevational view of the liquid slurry
distribution system of FIG. 2;

[0017] FIG. 3B is a sectional view taken along line B-B of FIG. 3A;

[0018] FIG. 4 is a top to bottom exploded view of the liquid slurry
distribution system of FIGS. 2 and 3A-3B;

[0019] FIG. 5 is a bottom to top exploded view of the liquid slurry
distribution system of FIGS. 2 and 3A-3B; and

[0020] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a central slurry feed system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] The present invention enables equal distribution of a manure slurry
from one or more mounted slurry tanks through a plurality of spaced soil
treatment tools that may address application across many crop rows in a
typical agriculture field using a rather simple, but effective, slurry
distributor system in which feed from a single inlet supplies a plurality
of outlets which, in turn, supply soil treatment tools located at varying
distances from the distributor with equal amounts of slurry. Embodiments
described herein are introduced as examples of the concepts of the
invention and are not intended to limit the scope in any manner as
variations within these concepts may occur to those skilled in the art.

[0022] In the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a fragmentary view of a slurry tank
manure spreading system incorporating a liquid manure spreading
distribution system in accordance with the present invention. The system,
generally at 10, includes a pair of large spaced slurry tanks 12 and 14
mounted on a heavy metal chassis 16 which includes orthogonally situated
sets of support wheels and hitches. These include a highway set, two of
which are shown at 18 with highway hitching arrangement 20 for
transporting the system on roadways, for example, from work site to work
site in an unloaded condition. Orthogonally-mounted spaced wheels as at
22 are located along the length of the chassis 16 and a second hitching
arrangement is shown at 24 for hitching the system to a tractor (not
shown) for distributing the contents of the tanks across an agricultural
field. Spaced agriculture tillage devices such as plow bits 26 and discs
28 may be included along with manure injectors as at 30. The system shown
in FIG. 1 is designed to treat 16 spaced crop rows simultaneously, but
the system can be designed to treat any convenient number. The sets of
wheels 18 are mounted on a tag axle arrangement as at 32 which enables
them to be raised out of contact with the ground when the
orthogonally-mounted wheels are to be used.

[0023] Slurry from the tanks 12 and 14 is fed using a central slurry feed
system such as is shown at 40 in FIG. 6 which includes a tee inlet 42
configured to receive slurry from two spaced slurry tanks through access
tee pipe inlets 44 and supply it to the intake of slurry pump 46 which
pumps the slurry through a supply pipe 48 which includes a flow meter 50
and is connected by an elbow to a hose barb 52. A flexible hose (not
shown) connects the feed system to the slurry distributor, as will be
described. The system is mounted on a frame 54.

[0024] As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 2, the slurry distributor
of the invention, generally at 60, includes a main distributor housing
62, a cover 64 and a plurality of outlet tubes 66. An inlet pipe is shown
at 68 with a gate valve at 70.

[0025] The parts of the slurry distributor are best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5
which depict top and bottom exploded views of the distributor of the
invention. The distributor housing 62 has a hollow, generally cylindrical
interior described by a sidewall 72 and a bottom member 74. The bottom
member 74 is a heavy gauge flat plate and is provided with an array of
obround or elongated openings 76 arranged in a radial pattern and to
which obround to round transectioning distribution tubes 66 are fitted.
The bottom member 74 further includes a central opening at 78. A cutter
plate 80 with a matching array of obround openings 82 is mounted on and
fixed to bottom member 74 in aligned relation through bolt holes as at 84
and is also provided with a central opening 85. The cutter plate can be
removed and replaced as needed.

[0026] The distributor assembly further includes a hollow rotating
expeller device 86 having a plurality of hollow lobes 88. The expeller
carries a cutter blade member 90 fixed to the underside of the expeller
and which has a plurality of openings 92 which align with corresponding
openings 94 in the expeller lobes 88 and includes a central opening 95.
The cutter is normally bolted on to the expeller for easy removal and
replacement. The expeller includes an upper central opening 96 which is
open to lobes 88 for receiving slurry from inlet pipe 68 (FIG. 2) through
opening 98, in cover 64 and short input tube 100 which nests in opening
96.

[0027] The combination expeller and cutter plate is driven for rotation by
a hydraulic motor system including a hydraulic motor 102 shown with drive
coupler 104, spacer 106, washer 108 and bolt 110 which rotates a drive
hub 112 fixed to expeller 86.

[0028] The distributor housing is also provided with a plurality of
swivel-mounted clamping devices 114 which cooperate with slots 116 to
secure cover 64 to distributor housing 62. Cover 64 may be connected to
housing 62 by hinges shown partially at 118. A hose loop 120 is also
shown connected to cover 64.

[0029] The manure slurry distributor is shown assembled in FIGS. 3A and
3B. In operation, with gate valve 70 open and expeller 86 rotating,
slurry to be distributed onto a field is pumped from supply tanks through
a flow meter and into the manure slurry distributor where it is received
in the expeller and distributed evenly under pressure through the
expeller lobes to the outlet tubes 66, each of which is connected to a
manure injecting tool by a flexible hose (not shown). Results have shown
that a very even distribution of the slurry material occurs using this
system. The amount and pressure of material pumped along with the speed
of the expeller can be controlled and coordinated with the corresponding
speed of the overall spreading system and amount of material to be
injected.

[0030] An important aspect of the invention involves the interaction of
the cutter blades 90 as they rotate at the surface of the cutter plate
80. This serves to shear off any solid debris in the slurry and prevent
clogging of any of the openings 82, 76 with the cutter plate providing a
shear edge to the obround or elongated openings and also, as with the
cutter blades, a replaceable wear surface above the housing bottom.

[0031] While the embodiment described herein is shown supplying sixteen
radially distributed outlet tubes, it will be appreciated that the system
will work equally well with any convenient number of outlets as long as
the relationship of the hollow expeller lobes and the obround openings is
maintained.

[0032] This invention has been described herein in considerable detail in
order to comply with the patent statutes and to provide those skilled in
the art with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to
construct and use embodiments of the example as required. However, it is
to be understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically
different devices and that various modifications can be accomplished
without departing from the scope of the invention itself.